But modern high-end automatics are in fact smoother than most humans. Racecar drivers might be smoother still but even they use flappypadle automatic sequential gearboxes at the very top end of racing because even the best trained humans are just too slow.
Curiously, racing electric cars use gearboxes too.
Some do and some don't in Formula E:
http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2016/october/insight-how-...
The sound can be pleasing, but the smell? I always thought gasoline smells and exhaust fumes smell awful. Maybe it's because I never owned an ICE vehicle myself.
Fueling a car is a very unpleasant experience to me.
It's part of the reason why, after my last road-trip, my wife and I decided we would rather wait for the EV to charge (and grab some food, stretch legs, maybe even a short hike etc.) than to borrow or rent an ICE. To be fair though, the other reason is the ICE we usually borrow is stick shift, so the difference in comfort when driving is huge, especially on curvy roads (In addition to no gear shifting, EVs usually do a lot of regenerative breaking when releasing the gas pedal, so you don't have to use the break pedal as much. I really missed that).
Some here have commented that the sound can be a safety feature. A lot of EVs/hybrids already have added that, but generally only at low speeds. Sometime it can be turned off, so if don't want to disrupt the neighbors, like late at night, you can turn disable it (since it's on by default, I'd think people would drive extra carefully if they turn it off).
Yes! Well admittedly, I have somewhat of a redneck past. [cue Ben Fold's Five music.] Having grown up in small-town Midwest and worked on Farms the smell of gasoline is linked to lots of boyhood memories and male-bonding experiences :)
I think a small number of ICE cars will stick around as a kind of hobby classic experience. A small minority of people will want the experience of having dinosaur juice explode in front of their feet just like some people like to use Super 8 cameras.
Still, the ICE backup on my Volt has been kind of handy and pleasant to have when it dropped below -10C here last week...
There is just no battery technology that will allow you run for more than 50-60 miles on a charge, especially when you have a lifted vehicle on 35+" off-road tires, in dirt, rocks, mountainous terrain (with water, snow, ice, mud, you name it).
There won't be charging stations out there, either. Heck, if you aren't trailering your rig to the trail, it's usually much more than 50 miles just to get to the start of the fun.
The thing is, though, if the battery tech were there, I'm sure that a chunk of the off-road community would be on top of it, given the advantages of electric drivetrains and such. But the batteries have to get a lot better than they are currently in today's electric cars; when we see cars able to go 500+ miles on a charge, and to be able to be recharged in under 10 minutes - that's about when off-roaders will jump on it en-masse.
Plus - there has to be ways to recharge out "in the bush" - and solar panels won't cover it (except in a dire emergency I suppose - recharging for days); off-roaders typically carry several gallons of extra fuel with them (jerry cans or otherwise) - for emergency use for whatever reason.
I'm not suggesting that electric cars won't be a thing for the masses because of off-road needs; just that off-road needs won't allow for electrics any time soon, unless there is a breakthrough in battery tech. Until then, it will be ICE - or at best, hybrid technology.
The Mad Max look is already a thing. See also: Mad Max.
Like some of those "Mad Max" movies?
I don't know about the smell, but once people realize how dangerous is a car you can't hear coming, they will start adding some sound, and what's better than a traditional car sound? The sound will be easily faked using samples from well known engines played according to the current speed by transducers under the car. There will be probably a market for such addons and traditional auto makers could even patent their sound once they realize there is a market for their recordings. Allowing paid download in realtime of "today's hottest car sound" in seconds when you start the car in the morning could become a business, so that news like someone arrested for pirating the sound of a 911 Carrera could even become the norm one day:)
Already there... I love this UFO sound from 2010: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/motoringvideo/8015988/El...
Modern cars are already very quiet at low speeds, what you're actually hearing at higher speeds is tire noise and (to a lesser degree) wind noise.
Several solutions present themselves. Firstly, people should learn to use their eyes, dammit. Secondly, a lot of electric cars have subtle noisemakers when driving at low speeds.
This was achieved with CVT (Continous Variable Transmission). I did not like to drive one, but it already exists.
Also I currently have a car with 7 gear automatic transmission and the acceleration is pretty smooth.
>lurchy, awkward automatic transmissions fade into distant memory.
Again, newer automatic transmission aren't bad anymore.
CVTs are mostly gutless because gas engines are gutless except at a very narrow RPM band.
The 0-60 times on EVs are impressive. But it's their 0-30 ranges that are absolutely mindblowing. My little boring Volt easily zips past even 'muscle' cars straight off from a red light (of course they easily catch up later, but I don't care)
If it's anything like the ones installed in most scooters I'd say it's pretty bad.
There's a level of smoothness and instant response that I haven't seen in cars which are not directly propelled by an electric motor.
But I have never driven an electric car, so I can only compare with other automatic cars.
I can't tell you much about the future, but I will make one prediction.
In the future, everything will be constantly beeping.
I'll get an electric car like everyone else. But I dream about having a '68 Mustang :-)
Not one I'd buy :-)
I for one will not feel the least bit sad when continuous, smooth acceleration becomes the norm, and lurchy, awkward automatic transmissions fade into distant memory.
I'll probably feel slightly nostalgic about the sound and smell of fuel-burning cars someday, but it won't inform my buying choices in the slightest.